Enter the Secretary of State

Updated Oct. 13, 2000 11:59 p.m. ET

At regular intervals figures appear on the national scene whose every utterance stands as proof of Henri Bergson's theory of comedy. The great French philosopher, who died in the 1940's, pointed out that there is a certain kind of stage character audiences always perceive as a comic figure--and that is the character who always arrives on stage to make exactly the same pronouncement, whatever the situation.

It was impossible to avoid thinking of Bergson and his theory yesterday, for, of course, there on the TV screens was...